Balkanethnoexp. Part VII. BulgariaMap
June Bulgaria is now Europe.  Put on tire chains in the winter.  Tunnel.  Bus.  No entry for horse-drawn or freight vehicles.  Black spot: a dangerous part of the road (like in Bosnia and Herzegovina).  A sign indicating that a vignette is required for this part of the highway.  A vignette is a kind of road tax sticker. You buy it at a gas station and stick it on your windshield.  Gas station.  SofiaMapApparently, people here know Philipp Kirkorov, the Bulgarian-born Russian pop singer. I was convinced that he was a product made for export only.  The dumpsters have been equipped with retroreflective stickers on their corners to make them visible at night.  Bus stops are outfitted with curved pipes holding bus schedules.  A police booth of the type commonly referred to as a “glass” (the exact same model was used in the USSR), which has been covered with modern exterior paneling.  New street signs in the capital.  PlovdivMapThe traditional Bulgarian phone booths can be seen in pairs here, and one is longer than the other.  The new payphone booths stand one by one. In the modern world, of course, a public phone is just an excuse to obtain a spot by the road, what’s really being sold is advertising space on the booth’s walls.  An old utility pole.  A pretty sign indicating the distance to the nearest manhole.  An old street sign.  A new street sign.  A trash can.  A hydrant.  Vehicle traffic lights.  Pedestrian traffic lights.  A greengrocer.  A sex shop.  But Plovdiv’s main attraction is its trash dumpsters, which look like tall buckets and are found in groups of five or six at a time.  Veliko TarnovoMapA very beautiful city, but a lethargic and sleepy one.  The kiosks are closed.  The street cleaner stands around reading her texts.  A handful of young people hang out under a monument whose grandeur is incommensurate with the stillness and emptiness of the city.  A Bulgarian robot.  Obituaries.  A little girl shows off her cat.  Recycling.  Every building has a piece of yellow pipe sticking out of the ground in front of it. Some kind of gas vent.  We ride onward.  |
